Asadullah - Barriers of Commercial Power Generation Using Biomass Gasification

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 29 (2014) 201215
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/rser
Barriers of commercial power generation using biomass gasication

gas: A review
Mohammad Asadullah n
Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi MARA, 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia
art ic l e i nf o
a b s t r a c t
Article history:
Received 9 February 2013
Received in revised form
15 August 2013
Accepted 24 August 2013
Available online 19 September 2013
Gasication is one of the promising technologies to convert biomass to gaseous fuels for distributed
power generation. However, the commercial exploitation of biomass energy suffers from a number of
logistics and technological challenges. In this review, the barriers in each of the steps from the collection
of biomass to electricity generation are highlighted. The effects of parameters in supply chain management, pretreatment and conversion of biomass to gas, and cleaning and utilization of gas for power
generation are discussed. Based on the studies, until recently, the gasication of biomass and gas
cleaning are the most challenging part. For electricity generation, either using engine or gas turbine
requires a stringent specication of gas composition and tar concentration in the product gas. Different
types of updraft and downdraft gasiers have been developed for gasication and a number of physical
and catalytic tar separation methods have been investigated. However, the most efcient and popular
one is yet to be developed for commercial purpose. In fact, the efcient gasication and gas cleaning
methods can produce highly burnable gas with less tar content, so as to reduce the total consumption of
biomass for a desired quantity of electricity generation. According to the recent report, an advanced
gasication method with efcient tar cleaning can signicantly reduce the biomass consumption, and
thus the logistics and biomass pretreatment problems can be ultimately reduced.
& 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords:
Supply chain management
Biomass pretreatment
Gasication
Gas cleaning
Electricity generation
Tar reforming
Contents
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Biomass supply chain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.1.
Biomass collection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.2.
Biomass transportation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Pretreatment of biomass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.1.
Biomass drying . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.2.
Grinding and densication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Biomass gasication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.1.
Updraft gasication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.2.
Downdraft gasication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Operating variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.1.
Temperature. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.2.
Pressure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.3.
Gasifying agent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.4.
Air fuel ratio and equivalence ratio (ER) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Gas cleaning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6.1.
Physical gas cleaning method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6.2.
Thermal process. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6.3.
Catalytic hot gas cleaning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Suitability of various types of biomass for gasifying in various types of gasiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Biomass gasication based power generation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Tel.: 60 3 5543 6359; fax: 60 3 5543 6300.

E-mail addresses: asadullah@salam.uitm.edu.my, asadullah8666@yahoo.com
1364-0321/$ - see front matter & 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2013.08.074
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M. Asadullah / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 29 (2014) 201215
9. Factors affecting engine power output using producer gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

10. Gas cooling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
11. Use of gas turbines or Stirling engines with producer gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
12. Health and environmental hazards associated with the use of producer gas
13. Economic evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
14. Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Acknowledgment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1. Introduction
Gasication is one of the promising technologies to exploit
energy from renewable biomass, which is derived from all living
matters, and thus is located everywhere on the earth. Forest
residues such as dead trees and wood chips, agricultural residues,
municipal organic wastes, and animal wastes are common examples of biomass. The advantages of utilizing these biomasses for
energy could be accounted for as it is carbon neutral and homogeneously distributed all over the world. Therefore, the utilization
of biomass energy can provide dual benets: it can reduce carbon
dioxide (CO2) emission as well as increase fuel security as it is
produced locally. Despite the many advantages of biomass energy
it is not being used in commercial scale because of many
challenges associated with supply chain management and conversion technologies.
Although biomass is available locally all over the world it is
widely distributed across regions. For example, forest residues are
distributed throughout the forest and so are agricultural residues
in the rural area. In addition, biomass is excessively moist at the
source which makes it difcult to transport, irregular in size, and
thus difcult to feed into the conversion unit. Therefore, development of a biomass based power generation facility needs several
factors to be considered such as supply chain management [13],
pretreatment of biomass [46], conversion of biomass to fuel gas
[78], and, cleaning and utilization of fuel gas for power generation [912].
In the supply chain management, harvesting, collection, rening and transportation of biomass are key issues to be facilitated
by the supply chain operation management. Since raw biomass,
especially agricultural biomass, is excessively wet (4 50 wt%), it is
not feasible to store it at the place of origin [13]. In other words,
transportation of raw biomass is cost intensive [14]. Therefore, for
sustainable supply of biomass to the biomass based power generation system needs optimum supply chain management, adopting available technologies. In addition, since the origin of biomass
is often in the rural area, the entire supply chain system requires
extensive involvement of the local community. Therefore, the
success of biomass energy production also partly depends on the
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motivation and satisfaction of the grower who grows biomass at

the root level [15].
Biomass conversion to fuel gas, which is termed as gasication,
is the key technology for biomass based power generation. In
order to produce optimum fuel gas composition for turbines or
internal combustion engines, the optimization of multiple parameters including gasier types (updraft, down draft), gasifying
agent (air, steam), temperature, pressure and air-fuel ratio is
essential [9]. The updraft gasier can be further classied as xed
bed and uidized bed. The uidized bed gasier is advantageous in
terms of homogeneous heat distribution throughout the reactor
and fast heat transfer rate to the particle, which facilitate the
reaction rate. However, this process essentially requires tiny
particles of biomass, the making of which is energy and cost
intensive [16]. The xed bed gasier, which may be updraft or
downdraft, is a simple construction and generally operates with
high carbon conversion, long residence time, and low gas velocity.
This method is suitable for small scale power generation. In
addition, the selection of feedstock is equally important, because
the composition of biomass signicantly affects the product gas
composition [17]. Moreover, some impurities such as tar, particulate matter, sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides and ammonia always
exist in the product gas. However, the internal combustion engine
can only accept a very limited concentration of these contaminants
[18]. It imposes the mandatory cleaning of the product gas by
removing the contaminants to a certain minimum level. Among
the contaminants, tar is the notorious one; it is a sticky material
and deposits in the downstream equipment and blocks the narrow
supply line [19].
Physical ltration of this sticky material creates two severe
problems: (1) it blocks the pores of the lter and creates a pressure
drop [19], and (2) tar consists of toxic chemicals (aromatic
hydrocarbons), and thus handling and disposing of it is a health
and environmental issue [20]. Catalytic hot gas cleaning is
the most promising method, which provides multiple advantages such as (1) tar can be almost completely removed [21],
(2) tar can be converted to product gas [22] and (3) other
contaminants can also be trapped in the catalyst bed [22].
Table 1
Detail data related to collection, storage and delivery cost of biomass in different countries.
Biomass type
Origin of biomass,
region/country
Physical nature of biomass
Mode of delivery
Costs related to collection,

storage and delivery in US$ t 1
Reference
Rice straw
Mixed agricultural biomass
Switch grass
Corn stover
Agricultural/forest
Agricultural/forest
Agricultural/forest
Crops
Wood
China
China
Great Plains, USA
Great Plains, USA
Italy
Spain
Portugal
India
Japan
Bulky
Bulky
Bulky
Bulky
Dense and high moisture
Bulk/dense
Bulk/dense
Bulky
Dense
Satellite storage delivery

Direct delivery
Direct delivery
Direct delivery
9.22
11.29
7583
6075
44/98
30/66
28/36
26-27
166
[27,34]
[35]
[28]
[28]
[29]
[29]
[29]
[30]
[31]
Multi-collection center
Supply region 9
203
Table 2
Different models for transportation of different biomasses.
Biomass type
Physical
nature of
biomass
Proposed model for

transportation
Comments
Reference
Switch grass
Corn stalk
Wheat straw
Bulky
Multi-commodity Network Flow

model
[38]
Switchgrass
Bulky
Mixed Integer Linear

Programming model
Cotton stock
Bulky
Switchgrass
Bulky
Algorithm-based management
policies were simulated
Discrete event simulation
procedure
Woody biomass
Dense
Cotton stock
Bulky
Agricultural residues, native perennial

grasses, dedicated energy crops
Bulky
Mixed Integer Linear

Programming model
Orchard and vineyard trimmings from

tribal and private farmers and slash
from normal timber operation
Dense/
bulky
Supply curve model
Multiple biomass types
Dense/
bulky
Linear Mixed-Integer models
The model determined the locations of warehouses, the size of

harvesting team, the types and amounts of biomass harvested/
purchased, stored, and processed in each month, the
transportation of biomass in the system, and so on.
This study showed that the operations of the logistic system were
signicantly different for harvesting and non-harvesting seasons
and mass production with a steady and sufcient supply of
biomass can increase the unit prot of bioenergy.
A knapsack model, with travel times, was constructed and solved
to obtain the lower bound for the transportation system.
This study simulated the transportation system of cotton gin
using a discrete event simulation procedure, to determine the
operating parameters under various management practices.
GIS model identied the potential pulpwood-to-biofuel facility
locations and the preferred location is selected using a total
transportation cost model.
This study examines the feasibility and the problems that arise
while trying to organize an integrated logistics network and
optimize its transportation economy.
A multi-region, multi-period, mixed integer mathematical
programming model encompassing alternative feedstocks,
feedstock production, delivery, and processing is developed. The
model is used to identify key cost components and potential
bottlenecks, and to reveal opportunities for reducing costs.
The study showed that the ownership boundaries can restrict the
available biomass supply and suggested that careful sitting and
inclusion of all land owners is necessary for the most efcient use
of resources.
The biomass models are formulated consistently with current
models for gas, electricity and heat infrastructures in the
optimization model eTransport, which is designed for planning
of energy systems with multiple energy carriers.
Geographic Information System

approach (GIS) and Total
Transportation Cost model
Linear Programming model
However, the catalyst deactivation due to carbon build up and

poisonous gas adsorption on the catalyst surface is often
considered a serious issue.
Biomass gasication gas can be used in different ways to
produce electricity. For instance, it can be used in combination
with a steam turbine and boiler, where fuel gas can be burned in
the boiler to generate high temperature and high pressure steam
which is then passed through the steam turbine to generate
electricity [23]. The challenge of this system is related to the net
electrical efciency, which is extremely low (1020%). The high
capital cost and the limitation of boiler and steam turbines lead to
avoiding this technology for power generation from biomass
gasication gas.
The internal combustion gas turbine offers very good net
electrical efciency even in the small scale ranges; however, the
direct combustion of the product gas mixed with impurities and
expansion of the combustion gas into the turbomachinery of the
turbine creates technical difculties [24]. It can cause unpredictable failure and shortening of the life of the machineries. In fact,
the cleaning of contaminants, especially tar and particulate matter
from the product gas, can overcome the identied problems.
Recent development in the customization of basic gas turbine is
also expected to overcome the problems associated with internal
gas turbines. The system is called externally-red gas turbine [25].
The basic concept is that the gas is red externally and the heat is
exchanged to air through a gasgas heat exchanger, which works
as a working uid to run the turbine. Two major advantages can be
counted in this development: (1) the separation of the working
uid from the combustion fumes assures the safe rotation of the
rotating parts, (2) the use of the exhaust clean hot air from the
[39]
[41]
[41]
[43]
[45]
[46]
[46]
[13]
turbine outlet in the combustion chamber of fuel gas ensures the

high thermal efciency of the process.
The internal combustion engine is the last and widely investigated option for power generation from biomass gasication gas.
This engine has already been optimized using gasication product
gas, yielding high electrical efciency [26]. For small scale and
distributed power generation, it can be considered as an ideal tool
for exploiting renewable energy from biomass. However, it has still
somewhat stringent requirements in terms of the purity of the
product gas and the technical aspects. In fact, the cleaning requirement of fuel gas is achievable using hot gas cleaning method,
employing a cost effective catalyst such as char supported iron catalyst,
and thus this method could be considered as the viable method.
When the distributed power generation from biomass is a
concern at the site where the biomass is available, the access of the
national grid from the site could create additional complexity.
If the existing transmission facilities are not accessible for the site
where the biomass power generation could be developed, new
transmission lines with associated facilities must be constructed.
The additional cost for constructing transmission facilities may
determine the economic feasibility of the power generation
project based on biomass.
This review is focused on identifying the problems associated
with biomass gasication based power generation facilities in
different aspects including biomass supply chain management,
pretreatment and production of gas, cleaning and utilization of
gasication gas for power generation by critically reviewing the
studies that have been conducted very recently. Based on the
collective knowledge from literature and personal view, some
suggestions have also been proposed.
204
2. Biomass supply chain
2.2. Biomass transportation
2.1. Biomass collection
One of the most important challenges of biomass based power

generation is the transportation of biomass from the origin where
it is available to the power generation unit. Two major problems in
effective transportation of biomass can be encountered: (1) excessive moisture content, and (2) low bulk density (except wood log).
These two factors increase the biomass transportation cost, so as
to increase the cost of bioenergy as a whole. The optimization of
the transportation network and medium of transportation as a
part of logistic support can ensure the consistent supply of
biomass to the power plant, while it can reduce transportation
cost as well.
A comprehensive research has been conducted in developing
an optimized logistic system [3844]. Different types of mathematical modeling have been proposed as summarized in Table 2.
As can be seen in Table 2, for the transportation of cotton gin, a
discrete event simulation procedure was used under various
management practices [41]. A linear programming model was
proposed for cotton stalk transportation from the eld to warehouses [45]. This model was initially developed for designing a
herbaceous biomass delivery system as well as for solving the day
to day tactical planning problems [42]. A conceptual mixed integer
linear programming (MILP) model for the transportation of lignocellulosic biomass-to-ethanol industry was developed with a
case study in Oklahoma State in USA [46]. The model was used to
identify the key cost component in biomass logistics, where
transportation was one of the major components that contributed
to elevate the biomass price. The MILP model for the switchgrassto-bioenergy industry has also been developed by other researchers, which determines the suitable locations and capacities of new
warehouses, the effective inventory policy, the year round harvesting schedule, and transportation of switchgrass [39]. A linear
programming model is constructed for switchgrass transportation
where the delivery cost is minimized by scheduling shipments
from the various on-farm storage locations to meet the demand of
feedstock supply [42].
A two-stage methodology has been proposed to identify the
best location for biofuel production facility [43]. The rst stage
used a Geographic Information System approach to identify the
best location of potential pulpwood as a feedstock and the second
stage used a total transportation cost model to select an optimal
biofuel facility location. A supply curves has been developed based
on different feedstocks in ve counties surrounding the Yakama
Nation in central Washington using spatially explicit estimates of
supply and transportation cost [44]. In this study the model that
was developed for estimating the transportation cost of biomass
was based on the methodology described in a Western Governors
Although biomass in any form is abundantly available everywhere

on the earth it is widely distributed across the region. Therefore, the
collection and delivery of biomass to the energy conversion plant is
cost intensive, and thus it has long been considered a big challenge
negatively affecting the protability and further development of
biomass based energy. In addition, the unstable market of biomass
due to lack of fully established biomass energy conversion technology is attributed to the difculties of biomass collection system. The
optimized collection, storage and transportation method along with
suitable selection of the power plant location can signicantly reduce
the cost related to the biomass feedstock. Table 1 shows the
collection, storage and delivery costs of different types of biomass
in different countries. To estimate the available biomass and to
establish a suitable collection method, a comprehensive research
both in modeling and practical eld has been conducted over the last
few years based on regional biomass [2733]. In China, especially for
rich straw, multiple approaches have been proposed in terms of
reducing collection and delivery cost [27,34]. The satellite storage and
delivery can be considered as one of the cost effective ways to collect
distributed agricultural biomass [35]. This study mathematically
optimized the number of satellites for storage and the optimum
distance of the power plant.
As in Table 1, the biomass cost (harvesting and collection)
depends on the type of biomass as well as on the economic status
of the country. Although the status of almost all of the EU
countries is the same the cost of biomass varies across the EU
countries [29]. In the Southern EU countries, the average biomass
extraction costs have been roughly estimated to be $27.6 t 1 for
Spain for agricultural residues and $59.6 t 1 for forest residues.
The highest costs have been found to be for Italy ($39.8 and
$88.8 t 1 for agricultural and forest residues, respectively) and the
lowest ones to be for Portugal ($25.7 and 32.9 t 1). The cost is
related to the difculties of collection.
Comparing to EU countries, the biomass scenario in India is
completely different. The GDP of India still depends on agricultural
sectors, and thus a huge amount of biomass includes agriculture
residues, wood processing residues, municipal solid waste (MSW)
and livestock dung which are plentiful, especially in the rural area
[36]. However, the people in India predominantly consume biomass, around 80% of wood and agricultural biomass, for their
cooking purposes [37]. The surplus biomass is insufcient for large
scale power generation using gasication technology. As can be
seen in Table 1, the biomass price in India is almost close to EU
countries. On the other hand, it is very expensive in Japan.
Table 3
Methods of biomass drying and their efciencies.
Types of dryers
Mode of
feeding
Capacity
of drying
Heat source
Capital
cost
Comments
Reference
Perforated oor
dryer
Rotary drier
Batch
Low
Low
Belt conveyer
Continuous High
Solar dryer
Rotary dryer for
lament type of
biomass
Bubbling bed drum
dryer
Thermal screw dryer
Batch
Low
Continuous Low
High
High
This drying method invariably produces a large vertical gradient in

moisture content of the dried bed.
This method can efciently dry biomass for a large scale power plant;
however, the high initial moisture content affects the drying rate.
Although a higher ue gas temperature would reduce the capital costs,
environmental issues may then become a problem, such as increased emissions.
Large scale operation is difcult.
Complex drying system
[59]
Continuous Large
Cylindrical air
heater
Recycled heat
from ue gas
Recycled heat
from ue gas
Sun
Hot air
Batch
Steam
Low
Hot air
Medium Solid to solid heat transfer is efcient.
Low
Continuous High
High
High
[60]
[57]
[61]
[62]
[63]
[64]
205
Table 4
Comparison of physical properties of loose and densied biomass.
Type of densication
Name of biomass
Bulk density kg m 3
Particle density kg m 3
Reference
None
Saw dust
Wood chip
Straw biomass
47.7
209273
4660
320373 (particle size13 mm)
[70]
[75,76]
[70]
Pellet
Saw dust
Straw biomass
606
360500
1234
600850
[77]
[78]
Briquette
Saw dust
Rice husk
Palm ber
505
410
250
1000
[78]
bioenergy. It is investigated that to make bio-energy sustainable,

the multi-component feedstocks are more advantageous than the
single component ones in terms of logistics and energy production
[13]. To predict the advantages, a multi-commodity network ow
model has been developed to design the logistics system for a
multiple-feedstock biomass-to-bioenergy industry. The model was
developed as a mixed integer linear programming, which determined the locations of warehouses, the size of the harvesting
team, the types and amounts of biomass harvested/purchased,
stored, and processed in each month, the transportation of
biomass in the system, and so on. This work revealed that the
mixture of multiple types of biomass is much more advantageous
compared to the single feedstock (switchgrass).
3. Pretreatment of biomass
3.1. Biomass drying
Fig. 1. Different forms of densied biomass: (a) bale, (b) briquette, and (c) pellet.
Association Report [47], where the time based and distance based
transportation costs were estimated. The results suggested that
the industrial cellulosic wastes produced as byproducts are
cheaper than that of the harvested biomass as feedstocks for
In gasication, moisture content in biomass has a signicant

role in technological aspects. Under gasication temperature,
steam generated from moisture works as a gasifying agent,
reacting with volatiles and char to convert them to product gas
as well as taking part in watergas shift reaction in order to
enhance the hydrogen content [48,49]. However, the excessive
moisture content in biomass (more than 40 wt%) reduces the
thermal efciency of the gasication system [50]. This is because
the heat absorbed by the unreacted steam in three steps, including
heating of moisture from room temperature to 100 1C, latent heat
of vaporization and heating of steam to gasication temperature is
totally lost from the system, and thus increases the thermal cost
[51]. On the other hand, the complete drying of biomass is cost
intensive as well as during gasication it needs further addition of
water to balance the hydrogen content in the product gas. Therefore, a limited amount of moisture in biomass usually around
40 wt% is benecial for gasication [52,53].
The moisture content in raw biomass usually above 50 wt%
such as palm empty fruit bunch (PEFB) is the abundantly available
agricultural biomass in Malaysia and Indonesia [54]. The utilization of this kind of biomass for energy production is a real
challenge. There are several crucial factors severely affecting the
constant supply of this biomass and the most severe challenge is
drying. There may be two options to reduce the moisture content
to a desired range. It may be sun drying at the origin where the
biomass is produced or it may be drying using heat at the plant
where it would be converted to energy. Although the sun drying
process is less costly it takes longer time to reach the equilibrium
moisture content [6]. It also depends on the atmospheric humidity.
The challenge in this slow drying process is that the biomass gets
molds and biologically degrades. On the other hand, the drying at
the processing plant is costly because of using costly drying
equipment as well as supplying heat for drying.
206
Due to the emerging of biofuel technologies, a comprehensive

research on biomass drying has been carried out in the last couple
of decades [5557]. In drying of biomass, several important issues
have been investigated such as energy efciency [58], emissions
[56], heat integration [57] and dryer performance [58] as shown in
Table 3. Drying to low moisture content (around 10 wt%) is time
consuming and energy intensive. Therefore, for the implementation of biomass based power generation, the selection of drying
option to achieve the optimum moisture content is of utmost
importance. Different types of dryers and drying processes are
utilized for biofuel drying as described in references [5964] of
Table 3. As a heat carrier, the hot uid such as air, ue gas, or
steam may be utilized directly (direct drying) or indirectly (indirect drying, heat transfer through hot surface) to biomass. The
drying of biomass has a signicant impact on the overall efciency
of biomass based power generation.
3.2. Grinding and densication
Although the utilization of mixed biomass for energy is
advantageous in terms of logistics the variability in physical
properties of individual biomass in the mixed stream often causes
severe problems, especially for consistent feeding in the gasication unit [65]. Some biomasses such as palm kernel shell (PKS) and
also wood chips are quite easy to feed in the gasication unit;
however, the other agricultural biomasses such as empty fruit
bunch (EFB) [66], grass [67], rice straw [68], wheat straw [69] etc. are
bulky and brous, and thus difcult to feed into the gasier [70]. The
brous biomass often gets stuck in the feeding line. The heterogeneity and low bulk density of mixed biomass is attributed to the
adverse effects in implementing the biomass gasication technology.
The problems related to biomass feeding can be overcome by
densifying bulky biomass, which removes the internal and intravoid spaces of biomass and increases the bulk density [71] as
shown in Table 4. Balling, briquetting and pelletizing are the
common technologies for densifying biomass [72,73]. Although
the order of equipment complexity, energy consumption and cost
increase from balling to pelletization the balling is not really
suitable for consistent feeding into biomass gasier because of
sizes as shown in Fig. 1 [74]. On the other hand, pellets provide
advantages in terms of consistent feeding into the conversion unit
because of their suitable size and shape as can be seen in Fig. 1
[74]. However, because of high density as shown in Table 4, they
are too hard to break down in the gasier in order to increase the
heat transfer to the center of the particles [7578]. In addition,
production of pellets is energy intensive and costly. Considering,
the complexity of machineries and cost effectiveness, briquette
appears to be an attractive option for commercial utilization of
biomass [78]. This is because it is moderately dense, easy to
transport, store and feed into the conversion unit. However, in
terms of thermodynamics and mass transfer in the conversion
process, the particle size of biomass is of prime importance and
severely affects the thermo-chemical conversion of biomass to the
desired product [16,79].
In biomass gasication, the heat and mass transfer is a kind of
counter current ow, where heat transfers from the outer surface
to the inner core of the particles, while the initial devolatilized
product travels from the center to the surface. Faster transfer of
both leads to faster conversion of intermediate products to the
nal gaseous products [80]. However, slower transfer is attributed
to longer residence time for volatiles, which leads to repolymerization of volatiles to form unreactive solids. Complete conversion
of the unreactive solids requires higher equivalence ratio of air,
which is attributed to the lower heating value of the product gas.
Reduction of particle size can enhance the heat and mass transfer,
so as to reduce the unwanted repolymerization reaction of
Fig. 2. Conceptual diagram of multiple steps in (a) updraft and (b) downdraft gasier.
volatiles. However, all of those densied products have lower

surface area per unit mass [77,78], which leads to a lower
transferring rate of volatiles and heat. In comparison, as reported,
the pulverization approach of biomass to produce powdered form
could provide higher surface area ratio and uniformity of feeding
into the gasication process [81].
4. Biomass gasication
Gasication is the key technology of biomass based power
generation. However, there are a number of key technological
challenges that retard the commercial application of biomass
gasication for power generation. For power generation, the
purpose of biomass gasication is to produce a combustible
producer gas to run the engine, which rotates the generator shaft.
However, the engines have some specic requirements for accepting fuel gas. For instance, the producer gas must have a certain
percentage of burnable gas (420% CO and 410% H2), a minimum
207
Table 5
Gas composition and tar content in the product gas from different biomass gasication in up-draft gasier under different conditions.
Reference
Biomass
Gasication
temperature
(oC)
Equivalence
ratio
Gas composition (vol%)
LHV
HHV MJ
(MJNm 3) (Nm 3)
Cedar wood
Cedar wood
700900
650950
00.3
00.3
H2(3050), CO (2225), CO2 (2530), CH4 (8-10),

H2S (3539 ppmv), COS (o 2 ppmv), N2 free
CO (1321), H2 (1.63), CH4 (0.46), CO2 (1125),
N2 (6064)
CO (2125), H2 (2.53.5), CH4 (1.51.8),
CO2 (912), N2 (5861)
CO (1018), H2 (610), CH4 (4), CO2 (1419),
N2 (4663), NH3 (3100 ppmv), Cl2 (260 ppmv)
CO (1520), H2 (5560), CH4 (810), CO2 (1518)
CO (2025), H2 (3045), CH4 (812), CO2 (1520),
H2S (2300 ppmv), COS (200 ppmv)
133.2
6.512.1
2.43.5
10
[84]
3.53.9
10
[84]
0.471.92
45
[85]
6.59.0
212
3.62
5.14
15
60
[86]
[87]
CO (2740), H2 (2227), CH4 (79), CO2 (3942)
17
15
[88]
Mesquite wood
2.7
Juniper wood
2.7
Rice straw
700850
0.070.25
725925
Agroland willow and one
800820
agriculture residue Dry Distillers
Grains
Wood chip Coconut shell
700900
0.350.39
0.3
Power
range
(kW)
[82]
[83]
Table 6
Gas composition and tar content in the product gas from different biomass gasication in down-draft gasier under different conditions.
Biomass
Gasication
temperature (1C)
Equivalence
ratio
Gas composition (vol%)
Tar content
(g Nm 3)
HHV/LHV
(MJ Nm 3)
Power range
(kW)
Reference
Bagasse
Hazelnut
shells
Wood
waste
Biomass
Biomass
1040
1000
0.35
H2(13), CO (23), CO2 (11), CH4 (4)
0.3760.40
5.0
50
45
[89]
[90]
9001050
0.2000.35
4.56.25
15
[91]
4900
0.27
0.26
H2(812), CO (1522), CO2 (58), CH4 (13),

N2 (6070)
Total combustible 45%
H2 and CO reaches 63.2772.56%,
0.045
6.5
11.11
10
[92]
[48]
amount of tar content (o 100 mg Nm 3) and be completely free of

dust and other poisonous gases (NH3, SO2 etc.). To satisfy the
requirement of product gas, a comprehensive research has been
done in the last couple of decades. Those researches mainly
focused on the development of different types of reactors as
discussed in the subsequent sections. The entire reactor systems
can be classied into two categories: (1) updraft gasier and
(2) downdraft gasier.
4.1. Updraft gasication

Updraft gasication is basically a counter current gasication
system where the air and other gasifying agents are injected from
the bottom, while the biomass enters from the top and moves
downward under the force of gravity. The operating principle
of this type of gasier, as shown in Fig. 2a, is that the feedstock
material is rst introduced into the drying zone at the top,
followed by the pyrolysis and reduction zone and nally the
unconverted solid passes through the combustion zone. In the
combustion zone, solid charcoal is combusted producing heat,
which effectively transfers to the solid particles during counter
current ow of the rising gas and descending solids. In this
gasication system, the product gas exits from the low temperature pyrolysis and drying zone, and is thus assumed to be
contaminated with substantial amount of tars (Table 5), which is
the major problem of updraft gasiers. If the gas is to be utilized
for turbines or internal combustion engines for electricity generation or mechanical power, it must go through a series of ltering
and cleaning devices in order to reduce the tar content to an
acceptable range. The intensive cleaning process adds considerably
higher investment cost and reduces the overall efciency of the
whole process. Therefore, the application of updraft gasication is
not suitable for internal combustion engines.
Fig. 3. Effect of temperature on tar yield in product gas.
As literature shows, a substantial amount of research on the

updraft gasier system has been carried out over the last few years
[8287]. Updraft gasier can be classied as updraft xed-bed
gasiers [8284], uidized bed gasiers [8587] and circulating
uidized bed gasiers [88]. Fluidized and circulating uidized bed
gasiers usually operate below 900 1C under atmospheric pressure
in order to avoid ash melting. Most of the researches reported that
the gas from any type of updraft gasier contains a substantial
amount of tar, and thus is not suitable for an internal combustion
engine. In addition, the uidized bed and circulating uidized bed
gasiers require excessive air/gas ow to uidize the bed materials, which is attributed to the poor burnable gas composition and
low caloric value of the product gas as can be seen from Table 5.
208
4.2. Downdraft gasication

The downdraft gasier features a co-current ow of air needed
for gasication, where product gases and solids ow downwards.
The operating principle of this gasier, as shown in Fig. 2b, is such
that the biomass and air are fed from the top, and are rst
introduced into the drying zone, followed by the pyrolysis, oxidation and reduction zones, and nally the product gas is drawn out
from the bottom, through the reduction zone. Since the product
gas travels through the high temperature oxidation zone and
nally through the reduction zone, almost all of the organic vapors
(tars) are consumed to form gas, and thus the gas is quite clean
compared to the updraft gasier. Two important requirements are
needed to be maintained for this gasier: (1) the temperature of
the oxidation zone is to be kept at as high as possible (usually
around 10001 C) and (2) the distribution of the gasifying agent
must be homogeneous at the throat where the oxidation of solid
and vapors generated from the pyrolysis zone takes place under
atmospheric pressure. Since the gas is quite clean from the
downdraft gasier, it is suitable for internal combustion engines
and turbines for electricity generation; however, because the gas
leaves the gasier at a relatively high temperature, it needs to be
cooled down before downstream application.
Gasication of different types of biomasses under different
conditions in downdraft gasier has been conducted and some of
the recent reports are summarized in Table 6. Agricultural waste
such as bagasse was gasied in a downdraft gasier where the
effect of temperature on the tar content in the product gas was
investigated [89]. The gas composition 23% CO, 13% H2, 11% CO2
and 4% CH4 was achieved with HHV of 5 MJ Nm 3 for Hazelnut
shells gasication [90]. The CO2 concentration was reduced for
wood shaving gasication, and thus the heating value slightly
increased to 6.25 MJ Nm 3 [91]. Using an innovative two-stage
downdraft gasier, the higher heating value was achieved to
6.5 MJ Nm 3 with tar content of less than 0.045 g Nm 3 and total
combustible gas of 45% [92]. Utilization of steam in the gasication
signicantly increased the hydrogen content, thereby increasing
the lower heating value to 11.11 MJ Nm 3 [48].
5. Operating variables
5.1. Temperature
In the gasication of biomass, temperature is one of the most
important parameters that can control the gas composition, tar
concentration, reaction rate, ash build-up etc. Therefore, it needs
to be highly controlled [93]. Low temperature gasication is
attributed to high tar content (Fig. 3) and low CO and H2 content
in the product gas [94,95]. On the other hand, high temperature
gasication leads to a desired high yield of CO and H2, while
reducing the tar content (Fig. 3). However, two major problems
limit high temperature gasication above 1000 1C: (1) the ash
melting, especially when high ash containing biomass is used such
as rich and wheat straw (ash content around 20%) and (2) the
requirement of stringent reactor specication. Therefore, numerous studies have been conducted to investigate the gas composition, tar concentration and other requirements within the
temperature range of 750900 1C. For instance, an attempt has
been made to produce H2 for charging a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC)
from sawdust in a downdraft gasier at a temperature range of
7501150 1C under atmospheric pressure [96]. An increase in CO
and H2 content and a decrease in CO2 and CH4 were observed
when temperature was increased from 650 to 800 1C in a bubbling
uidized bed gasier. The raising of temperature from 750 to
850 1C in a uidized bed gasier signicantly reduced the tar
content in the product gas, while increased the CO and H2

concentration. However, the tar yield from the gasication below
1000 1C is signicantly higher than the acceptable range [9496],
and thus it needs gas cleaning. The entrained ow gasier usually
provides very high quality producer gas due to very high operating
temperatures (12001500 1C) under high oxygen pressure. The
plasma gasier can decompose all kinds of solids because it
operates at even higher temperatures (15005000 1C).
5.2. Pressure
Depending on the downstream application of the product gas,
gasication of biomass is often conducted under atmospheric and
high pressures. Some downstream applications of product gas
such as the conversion of gas to methanol or to synthetic diesel
using FischerTropsch synthesis method need high pressure of
product gas, where gasication under pressurized condition is
benecial. In addition, an increase in the gasier pressure reduces
the tar yield in the product gas. However, some investigations
conducted in the uidized bed gasier have shown that the
concentration of tar, mainly naphthalene, increased with increasing gasier pressure from 0.1 to 0.5 MPa, and thus the concentration of CO decreased, while CH4 and CO2 increased. A model
gasication coupled to an SOFC and gas turbine was conducted to
show that a moderate pressure, for instance up to 4 bar, does not
have a major impact on the gasication process. Interestingly, it
affected turbine efciency and, thus the unit's overall efciency
increased from 23% to 35% [96].
5.3. Gasifying agent
As shown in Fig. 2a and b, the gasication process consists of
four different physical and chemical processes. In the drying zone
of the gasier, the moisture in biomass evolved as steam, while in
the pyrolysis zone, the volatile organic matter distills out from the
xed carbon. The volatiles and solid carbons then introduce into
the oxidation and reduction zones successively or vice versa,
depending on the gasier types, while they react with gasifying
agents to produce product gases. As gasifying agents, air, steam,
carbon dioxide and pure oxygen are commonly being used the
selection of gasifying agent entirely depends on the requirement
of the product gas quality for different downstream applications.
Utilization of air as a single gasifying agent produces gases with
lower concentration of H2 and CO, because air also contains
nitrogen. In addition, some of the H2 and CO take part in complete
combustion, and thus it increases the CO2 concentration. Addition
of external steam with air increases the H2 concentration, because
of the watergas shift reaction. It assists to balance CO and H2 ratio
for FischerTropsch synthesis. However, addition of steam reduces
the thermal efciency of the gasication. Pure oxygen is suitable
for producing gases with high concentration of CO and H2 and low
concentration of tar; however, pure oxygen itself is an expensive
gasifying agent. Carbon dioxide also acts as a gasifying agent to
react with carbon to produce carbon monoxide; however, the
reaction is slow.
5.4. Air fuel ratio and equivalence ratio (ER)
The mass ratio of air to fuel in any combustion unit is dened as
the airfuel ratio (AFR). The minimum ratio of air to fuel that is
exactly enough to burn the fuel completely is termed as stoichiometric ratio. Combustion of fuel requires a minimum stoichiometric ratio of air to fuel, while gasication requires an airfuel
ratio lower than stoichiometric ratio. The equivalence ratio can be
dened as the ratio between the airfuel ratio of the gasication
process and the airfuel ratio for complete combustion. The
209
Table 7
Effect of temperature on the gas composition and tar content in the product gas.
Catalyst type
Mode of Application Biomass type

of catalyst
Operating
temperature (1C)
Tar removal
Reference
Dolomite
Olivine
Fe/Olivine
Ni/Al2O3
Rh/CeO2
Rh/CeO2/SiO2
Rh/CeO2/SiO2
Sewage sludge
Sewage sludge
Wood
Wood
Cellulose/cedar wood
Cellulose
Cedar wood, Jute stick,
Bagasse, Rice straw
Cedar wood
850
850
855890
780
550
500
550700
76
50
38
48.27
100
100
100
[103]
[103]
[104]
[105]
[106,107,108]
[109,110]
[111,112]
Rh/CeO2/SiO2, Ni/Al2O3,
Dolomite, non-catalyst
Ni/Ca12Al14O33 or
12CaO 7Al2O3
Ni MnOx/Al2O3
Ni(x wt%)/CeZrO2
Primary bed
Primary bed
Primary bed
Primary bed
Primary bed
Primary bed
Primary/Secondary
bed
Primary/Secondary
bed
Primary/secondary
bed
Secondary bed
Secondary bed
550700
Toluene
500800
139 g Nm 3 non-cat 20% reduction by dolomite [113]

78% reduction by Ni cat
100
[114]
550650
500900
100
Toluene 100 1-methylnaphthalene, 90
[115]
[116]
Ilmenite
Fe/Char
Fe/Char
Secondary bed
Secondary bed
Secondary bed
Cedar wood
Toluene,
1-methylnaphthalene
Mallee wood
Mallee wood
Mallee wood, 4.4 kg h 1
600850
500850
900
76
95
97
[117]
[118,119,120]
[121]
mathematical representations of airfuel ratio and equivalence

ratio are as follows:
Airfuel ratio
ER
mol of air
mol of fuel
actual airfuel ratio

airfuel ratio for complete combustion
From Eq. (2), it seems that the higher ER creates more oxidation
environment in the gasier, and thus attributed to lower caloric
product gas. On the other hand, lower ER results in higher caloric
product gas; however, the tar yield is considerably higher. The
higher concentration of burnable gas composition and lower tar
concentration in the product gas is of prime importance for
downstream application. Therefore, the process optimization is
the focus of biomass gasication research.
The thermodynamic analysis to evaluate the effect of ER on
energy efciency in different biomass gasication was carried out
and it was found that the efciency decreased with increasing the
ER [97]. In one study, it was found that the energy efciency of the
gasication system increased until the optimum ER (0.25), while it
was decreased at higher ER [50].
6. Gas cleaning
The biomass gasication gas consists of a mixture of CO, H2,
CO2, CH4, N2, water vapor, and some impurities such as tar
(aromatic hydrocarbon species), particulate matter, sulfur compounds, hydrochloric acid, ammonia, and alkali metal species.
The gas composition and impurities vary depending on the
biomass feedstock, gasier design, gasifying agents, and gasication conditions. However, in general, the impurities concentration,
especially tar and particulate matter, often remains above the
acceptable range for some specic downstream applications such
as internal combustion engine, turbine, fuel cell, chemical conversion by FischerTropsch synthesis etc. Based on many studies, the
loading limit for particles in the producer gas is strictly imposed
and it is varied based on the application. The internal combustion
engine can satisfactorily accept the particle concentration
o50 mg Nm 3 with size of o10 m, while it iso30 mg Nm 3
for gas turbine [5154]. Therefore, for most of the downstream
applications, the product gas is required to be cleaned. There are
multiple options to clean up the product gas, for example, physical

processes, thermal process and catalytic process.
6.1. Physical gas cleaning method
The physical gas cleaning method is a simple ltration or wet
scrubbing of the product gas in order to remove the tar and
particulate matter from the gas stream through gas/solid or gas/
liquid interactions. The ltration may be conducted either in high
temperature or ambient temperature, while the scrubbing is
usually conducted at ambient temperature. The high temperature
lter must consist of temperature tolerable materials for example,
ceramics, ber glass, sand etc. On the other hand, the low
temperature lter may consist of cotton bers, charcoal, etc. In
either condition of ltration, the fouling of particulate matter and
sticky tar has been considered as a crucial problem. In the large
scale operation, the clogging of the pores of the lter may cause a
huge pressure drop. The water scrubbing of the product gas can
scavenge particulate matter and tar; however, the handling of a
huge amount of contaminated water is unhealthy and it contaminates the environment.
A high temperature granular bed ltration has been investigated and several eld tests were conducted at about 550 1C [98].
As reported, this lter is comparatively better than that of the bag
ltration method. In one research, tar has been termed as heavy
tar and light tar and they were removed using vegetable oil and a
char lter, respectively. The turbulence of oil increased the
absorption of heavy tar [99]. However, the author did not mention
post operative treatment of vegetable oil. In the CHRISGAS project,
a ceramic lter has been developed for the cleaning of hot
producer gas from steamO2 gasication of biomass at Delft
University of Technology [100]. Ceramic candles were used in
the temperature range between 600 and 800 1C for more than
50 h. Although the result was promising a lter cake was formed
on the candle surface. Different types of fabric lters were
investigated for cold gas ltration and it was observed that the
pressure drop increased very quickly, due to the deposition of
particles, which was difcult to remove.
6.2. Thermal process
A thermal process of gas cleaning is a process where the heavy
aromatic tar species are cracked down to lighter and less problematic smaller molecules such as methane, carbon monoxide and
210
hydrogen. In this process, the efcient tar cracking is usually

achieved at temperatures higher than 1000 1C [96]. The most
challenging aspects of high temperature tar cracking are (1) the
cracking equipment must be constructed of high temperature
tolerable expensive alloys, (2) it needs a highly controllable
complex heating system, (3) the ash melts at this temperature,
and (4) the product gas needs an intensive cooling system.
6.3. Catalytic hot gas cleaning
Downstream application of gasication product gas, especially
for gas turbines or internal combustion engines, needs to meet
some stringent requirements, such as the tar concentration
must lie between 50 and 100 mg Nm 3 and the ammonia concentration must be less than 50 ppm [101,102]. The physical
ltration and even high temperature thermal cracking is inefcient to meet these requirement. Utilization of effective catalysts
often considered an attractive method to decrease the concentration of tar and ammonia in the product gas stream. In addition, the
catalytic tar and ammonia decomposition often occurred at much
lower temperatures (600800 1C) compared to thermal cracking
(E 1200 1C). In the case of physical cleaning process, the product
gas is needed to be cooled down to ambient temperature thus
decreasing the thermal efciency. The novelty of the catalytic
process is that it operates at the same temperature of the exit
product gas temperature, and thus it does not need to heat up or
cool down. In addition, it converts tar to CO and H2, so as to
increase the burnable gas composition. The catalytic bed can also
trap the particulate matter and ammonia, so as to provide almost
completely clean gas for downstream application.
A comprehensive research on the catalytic hot gas cleaning has
been done over the past few years. Various types of catalysts have
been proven to be active for tar and ammonia decomposition as
summarized in Table 7. For tar cracking, some attempts have been
made utilizing the catalyst in the primary bed, where the catalyst
was placed in the gasication reactor [103105]. However, the
catalyst was rapidly deactivated due to the fouling of ash and
carbon on the catalyst surface [104,105]. Although the nonmetallic catalysts showed longer activity the catalysts were eroded
and elutriated from the bed [103]. The noble metal catalysts such
as rhodium (Rh) showed superior catalytic activity in the primary
and secondary bed, and converted almost all the tar and char at
unusually low temperatures (500700 1C) [106113]. However,
as the scanning electron images of spent catalyst (Rh/CeO2), it
sintered during reaction [106108]. The sintering problem was
overcome when CeO2 and Rh was loaded on porous silica sequentially as Rh/CeO2/SiO2 [109113]. However, these catalysts still
need to be investigated for long run experiment.
Among the transition metal catalysts tested in the secondary
reactor, nickel based and modied nickel based catalysts were
widely investigated [114116]. These catalysts are quite effective
for tar destruction; however, the experiments were run in short
reaction time. The recent development of some cheap catalyst
based on iron and char for tar reforming has expedited the
commercial exploitation of biomass gasication technology for
power generation [117121].
7. Suitability of various types of biomass for gasifying in

various types of gasiers
The chemical composition and physical properties of different
biomasses vary widely depending on their origin. Biomass properties signicantly affect the operation of the gasier, product gas
composition and overall efciency of the biomass based power
generation. In addition, depending on the biomass characteristics,
the type and gasier design also vary widely. For example, most
wood species have ash contents below 2% [108] and are therefore
suitable fuels for xed bed gasiers. However, because of the high
volatile content of wood, an updraught gasier produces high tar
containing gas, which is unsuitable for engines but suitable for
direct burning. After intensive cleaning, the gas can be used for
engines; however, it is rather difcult to make the gas suitable
for engines. A downdraught gasier on the other hand can be
designed to produce tar-free product gas when fueled by wood
chips of low moisture content. Using a relatively simple cleanup
train, the impurities can be removed and the gas can be used in
internal combustion engines. However, in the case of sawdust, the
downdraught gasier also produces excess tars and in addition
creates an inadmissible pressure drop in the gasier.
Agricultural residues, especially in developing countries, are
major sources of biomass available for gasication. Some agricultural residues like coconut shells [122] and maize cobs [123] are
the best documented and unlikely to create serious problems in
xed bed gasiers. Palm kernel shell (PKS), available in Malaysia
and Indonesia, is also suitable for gasication. However, some
berous biomasses like coconut husk and empty fruit bunch (EFB)
[124] are reported to present bridging problems in the feeder
section. These biomasses can be gasied after pretreatment. Most
of the herbaceous biomasses have ash contents more than 10%,
which often causes slugging problems in downdraught gasiers
[125]. The ash content in rice husks is even higher (420%), and
this is probably the most difcult biomass for gasication. The
xed bed updraft gasier probably can gasify most of the agricultural biomasses. However, the cost and complexity of the uidized
bed, maintenance and labor costs, and the environmental consequences (disposal of tarry condensates) involved in cleaning the
gas, reduce the cost effectiveness and prevent engine applications
[126].
Among different gasiers, downdraught equipment seems to
be less complex and cheaper to install. It is easy to operate and it
creates fewer environmental difculties. However, the technology
developed so far related to downdraft gasiers is inadequate to
handle agricultural residues (with a few exceptions) without
installing expensive additional devices. Fluidized bed gasiers on
the other hand show great promise in gasifying a number of
difcult agricultural wastes. However, only semi-commercial
installations are currently available and operating experience is
extremely limited. It seems that more studies are required for both
types of gasiers for individual biomass gasication.
8. Biomass gasication based power generation

Biomass gasication based a power generation system consists
of pretreatment of biomass, gasication of biomass, gas cleaning
and feeding of a combustible gas mixture in gas-turbine or gasengine to generate electricity as shown in Fig. 4. The product gas
can also be burned in a boiler to generate steam, which can run a
steam turbine to produce electricity. As mentioned in the previous
section, the raw gas mixture that exits the gasier is often
contaminated with tar, particulate matter, ammonia and others.
The most difcult task is to clean up the gas to meet the stringent
requirement of a gas turbine and engine operation in terms of tar
concentration (o100 mg Nm 3). For boiler operation, the product
gas can directly be used without further treatment. However, the
overall efciency of electricity generation through a steam turbine
is less than 20%, while it can achieve around 50% for gas turbine
and engine. Among the electricity generation technologies, the gas
engine is widely focused on, especially for distributed power
generation due to its small system capacity, compact structure,
Raw biomass
Gas engine
211
Electricity
Electricity
Pre-treatment
Gasicaon
Gas cleaning
Gas turbine
Electricity
Boiler
Steam
turbine
Fig. 4. Flow sheet diagram for power generation using biomass gasication gas.
low investment cost, simple operation and maintenance and low

running cost [121].
In order to meet the gas quality requirement for engine
operation, effective methods of gas cleaning are being investigated
[127]. Because of the technical faults, especially regarding gas
cleaning and ash problem many of the large scale gasication
methods for electricity generation have been aborted [128]. Therefore, researchers have focused on technology development for gas
cleaning in the laboratory bench scale and pilot scale. One recent
development can be considered as one of the pioneering works to
produce quality gas for gas engines [121].
The power loss of the engine run on producer gas can be

recovered by increasing the compression ratio [129]. Normally,
the compression ratio of a producer gas based commercial engine
is 6.57.5. A higher hydrogen content in the producer gas can
enhance the ame speed which can enhance the compression
ratio as high as 10. However, a higher compression ratio creates
some other problems such as starting difculty, vibrational problems, wearing and tearing of piston and reducing the life of the
system.
10. Gas cooling

9. Factors affecting engine power output using producer gas
A producer gas fueled engine generally leads to a reduced
power output. The factors affecting the power output are as
follows:
(a) heating value of the gas
(b) amount of combustible mixture supplied to the cylinder,
(c) the number of combustion strokes in a given time (number of
revolutions per minute, rpm)
The heating value of producer gas varies depending on the
concentration of combustible gases such as carbon monoxide,
hydrogen and methane. In order to achieve complete combustion
of producer gas, it has to be mixed with air in a suitable ratio,
resulting in a dilute mixture having a lower heating value per unit
volume than producer gas alone. The usual heating value of the
producer gas and air mixture is around 2500 kJ m , while the
heating value of a stoichiometric mixture of petrol and air is about
3800 kJ m . The difference of this heating value results in power
loss of around 35% [129].
The amount of combustible gas mixture that enters into the
cylinder of an engine depends on the cylinder volume and gas
pressure. For an engine, the cylinder volume is constant; however,
the inlet gas pressure may vary. The higher inlet pressure facilitates the increase of the volumetric efciency of the engine,
which is dened as the ratio between the actual pressure of the
gas in the cylinder and normal pressure (1 atm). When the gasier
is directly connected to the engine, the inlet gas pressure at the air
inlet manifold depends on the pressure drop over the total
gasication system, reducing the entering gas pressure, in other
words reducing the available combustible gases in the cylinder,
obviously reduces the maximum power output of the engine.
The engine power output is also limited by the engine speed
(revolution per minute, rpm). The producer gas and air mixture
combustion speed is usually low as compared to the combustible
mixtures of petrol and air, which reduce the efciency of the
engine.
The hot producer gas at the outlet of the gasier needs to be

cooled for downstream application. Different types of gas coolers
are used to cool down the producer gas to ambient temperature
such as natural convection coolers, forced convection coolers and
water coolers. Natural convection coolers consist of a simple
length of pipe to provide enough surfaces for heat to be transferred to the atmosphere. This kind of cooler is very simple to use
and requires no additional energy input; however, it is very bulky.
Forced convection coolers need a fan to circulate cooling air
around the gas pipe. However, extra energy is needed to run a
fan. Two types of water coolers are available: the scrubber and the
heat exchanger. For the scrubber, the gas is brought in direct
contact with water, which is sprayed onto the gas stream by
means of a suitable nozzle device. The disadvantage of this system
for gas cooling is that the impurities, especially tar, contaminate
the circulating water. The contaminated water is difcult to
maintain. In addition, the system requires some power for circulating water. The water cooled heat exchanger is considered to be
the best option because the circulated water can be kept clean
during operation and the power consumption of a suitable water
pump can be justied.
11. Use of gas turbines or Stirling engines with producer gas

Producer gas can be used for gas turbines and Stirling engines
[129]. A gas turbine can accept high inlet gas temperatures which
aid to increase their thermal efciency. However, the technology
developed so far related to gasiers and turbines is not suitable for
power generation. The most severe problem is related to dust
content in the producer gas, especially at high inlet temperatures.
In addition, the tiny amount of alkaline vapors (Na, K and Ca)
which are usually present in producer gas corrode the turbine
blade. The possibility of using Stirling engines using producer gas
has been studied [130]. A Stirling engine in small range is proven
to be more advantageous because of low maintenance, high
efciency, low lubricant consumption etc. The gasier producer
gas can be used for Stirling engines more efciently compared
to the internal combustion engine. This is because, since the
212
combustion products do not enter the Stirling engine, they require

no cleanup.
(E) The discount rate of 8% has been assumed for calculating BCR.
In this case the IRR has been calculated as 19%. Thus considering all these criteria it can be concluded that the BGBPP is
economically viable.
12. Health and environmental hazards associated with the use

of producer gas
Biomass gasication based power generation involves different
types of hazards and environmental impacts [131].
Toxic hazards: The most toxic constituent of producer gas is
carbon monoxide, as it has the tendency to combine with the
hemoglobin of the blood and thus prevent oxygen absorption and
distribution. Therefore, no leakage can be allowed and during
starting up and shutting down, the vented gas must be discharged
under controlled conditions. In addition, the other toxic gases such
as SOx and NOx should be completely separated before being used
as the producer gas. Tar is another contaminant, which is also toxic
and environmentally hazardous.
Fire hazards: Gasication is normally a high temperature
process, and thus the surface of the equipment is usually hot
and the ring of the system because of sparking is likely to
happen. Risks can be considerably decreased by properly insulating the hot surface.
Explosion hazards: The producer gas contains a signicant
portion of hydrogen gas and if a sufcient concentration of air is
mixed with the gas mixture, an explosion may occur. Air leakage
into the gas system combust the gas and generally does not give
rise to explosions. The leakage at the lower part of the gasier
results in partial combustion of the gas leading to higher gas outlet
temperatures and a lower gas quality. However, the pyrolytic gases
in the feeder system can mix with air and can cause explosion.
Environmental hazards: Ashes and condensate are two main
environmental hazards. The gasication of agricultural residues
usually produces high ash. The ash does not contribute to environmental problems if it can be disposed of in proper way. However,
the disposal of toxic tar-containing condensate from a large number
of gasiers can have undesirable environmental effects.
14. Conclusions
Biomass gasication can be considered as one of the competitive ways of converting distributed and low value lignocellulosic
biomass to fuel gas for combined heat and power generation, fuel
cell and synthetic diesel production. However, from the collection
of biomass to the utilization of fuel gas for downstream application the process suffers numerous problems that slow down the
commercial exploitation of biomass based energy technology.
To overcome the logistic problems and to meet the power requirement at the remote areas, the distributed power generation at the
location where biomass is abundant could be more economic.
In order to reduce the technical problems, a small size (110 MW)
of the plant could be suggested. The mixed gasifying agent, for
instance, air and steam, could provide suitable gas composition for
gas engines with higher thermal efciency. The utilization of a
catalyst, especially, a cheap and active catalyst for gas cleaning can
provide the required gas quality for gas engines. However, more
research is required to overcome the technical barriers of biomass
gasication based power generation for commercialization.
Acknowledgment
This research is nancially supported by the Research Management Institute, Universiti Teknologi Mara under the Project no.
600-RMI/DANA5/3/RIF(110/2012) and Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia under the Project no. 600-RMI/PRGS/5/3(3/20/
2011).
References
13. Economic evaluation

The cost of biomass gasication based power generation varies
depending on the economic situation of the country. Therefore,
the total initial investment and operational cost vary widely from
country to country. An example from India An assessment of a
Biomass Gasication based Power Plant in the Sunderbans is
mentioned here [132]. The cost of diesel use per unit of power
generation is USD 0.49 but the introduction of the gasier has
reduced it to USD 0.09 per unit. This is an indicator of benet from
the installation of gasier power. On the basis of the following
assumptions, the study has calculated the benet cost ratio (BCR)
and internal rate of return (IRR).
(A) The initial project cost of the gasier plant: USD 272732.9.
(B) Lifetime of the plant: 15 years.
(C) Operation and maintenance cost is the actual cost needed for
the transmission line maintenance, maintenance of the power
plant, labor, and fuel cost (evaluated at the market price), etc.
(1) Input raw material charges: USD 10161.72.
(2) Labor charges: USD 4298.87.
(3) Energy plantation: USD 5117.707.
Total annual operation and maintenance cost is USD
19578.3.
(D) The benets are effectively generated in terms of the savings
in electricity bills and increase in business hours of the
commercial units.
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Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 29 (2014) 201215

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews

Barriers of commercial power generation using biomass gasication

Tel.: 60 3 5543 6359; fax: 60 3 5543 6300.

M. Asadullah / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 29 (2014) 201215

9. Factors affecting engine power output using producer gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

motivation and satisfaction of the grower who grows biomass at

Physical nature of biomass

Costs related to collection,

Satellite storage delivery

M. Asadullah / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 29 (2014) 201215

Proposed model for

Multi-commodity Network Flow

Mixed Integer Linear

Agricultural residues, native perennial

Mixed Integer Linear

Orchard and vineyard trimmings from

Supply curve model

Multiple biomass types

Linear Mixed-Integer models

The model determined the locations of warehouses, the size of

Geographic Information System

However, the catalyst deactivation due to carbon build up and

turbine outlet in the combustion chamber of fuel gas ensures the

M. Asadullah / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 29 (2014) 201215

2. Biomass supply chain

2.2. Biomass transportation

2.1. Biomass collection

One of the most important challenges of biomass based power

Although biomass in any form is abundantly available everywhere

This drying method invariably produces a large vertical gradient in

Medium Solid to solid heat transfer is efcient.

M. Asadullah / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 29 (2014) 201215

320373 (particle size13 mm)

bioenergy. It is investigated that to make bio-energy sustainable,

In gasication, moisture content in biomass has a signicant

M. Asadullah / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 29 (2014) 201215

Due to the emerging of biofuel technologies, a comprehensive

volatiles. However, all of those densied products have lower

M. Asadullah / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 29 (2014) 201215

Gas composition (vol%)

H2(3050), CO (2225), CO2 (2530), CH4 (8-10),

CO (2740), H2 (2227), CH4 (79), CO2 (3942)

Gas composition (vol%)

H2(13), CO (23), CO2 (11), CH4 (4)

H2(812), CO (1522), CO2 (58), CH4 (13),

amount of tar content (o 100 mg Nm 3) and be completely free of

4.1. Updraft gasication

Fig. 3. Effect of temperature on tar yield in product gas.

As literature shows, a substantial amount of research on the

M. Asadullah / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 29 (2014) 201215

4.2. Downdraft gasication

content in the product gas, while increased the CO and H2

M. Asadullah / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 29 (2014) 201215

Mode of Application Biomass type

139 g Nm 3 non-cat 20% reduction by dolomite [113]

mathematical representations of airfuel ratio and equivalence

actual airfuel ratio